Palaeontology in Wales

Overview of palaeontology in Wales

A lifesize model of a Dracoraptor at the National Museum Cardiff

Palaeontology in Wales is palaeontological research occurring in Wales.

## Cambrian period[edit]

* Anebolithus is a genus of trilobites found in Gilwern Hill, Powys, Wales. Anebolithus, like other trinucleids, was blind.[1]
* Homagnostus is a genus of trilobite in the order Agnostida, which existed in what is now north Wales. It was described by Howell in 1935. The genus was originally considered to be Agnostus pisiformis var. obesus (Belt, 1867).[2]

## Ordovician period[edit]

* Lloydolithus is a genus of trilobites from the Late Ordovician of Wales.[3]Ogygiocarella debuchii fossil, Wales.
* Ogygiocarella Brongniart, 1822,[4] is a genus of asaphid trilobites. It occurred during the Middle Ordovician.[5][6]

## Triassic dinosaurs[edit]

### Pantydraco[edit]

Pantydraco caducus

Pantydraco (where "panty-" is short for Pant-y-ffynnon, signifying hollow of the spring/well in Welsh, referring to the quarry at Bonvilston in South Wales where it was found)[7] was a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Late Triassic of Wales. It is based on a partial juvenile skeleton once thought to belong to Thecodontosaurus. Only one valid species of Pantydraco is recognised: P. caducus.[7]

Life reconstruction of Pendraig milnerae

### Pendraig[edit]

Pendraig (meaning "chief dragon" in Middle Welsh) is a genus of coelophysoid theropod dinosaur from South Wales. It contains one species, Pendraig milnerae, named after Angela Milner. The specimen was discovered in the Pant-y-Ffynnon quarry. In life it would have measured one metre in length.[8][9][10]

## Jurassic Wales[edit]

### Paceyodon[edit]

Paceyodon is an extinct genus of morganucodontan from Early Jurassic deposits of south Wales. Paceyodon is known from an isolated molariform that is significantly larger than any morganucodontan molariform yet discovered. It was collected in the Pant Quarry, Vale of Glamorgan. It was first named by William A. Clemens in 2011 and the type species is Paceyodon davidi.[11]

### Dracoraptor[edit]

Dracoraptor hanigani

Dracoraptor (meaning "dragon thief") is a genus of coelophysoid dinosaur that lived during the Hettangian stage of the Early Jurassic Period of what is now Wales dated at 201.3 ± 0.2 million years old.[12][13]

The fossil was first discovered in 2014 by Rob and Nick Hanigan and Sam Davies at the Blue Lias Formation on the South Wales coast. The genus name Dracoraptor is from Draco referring to the Welsh dragon and raptor, meaning robber, a commonly employed suffix for theropod dinosaurs with the type species being Dracoraptor hanigani. It is the oldest known Jurassic dinosaur and is the first dinosaur skeleton from the Jurassic of Wales.[12]

## See also[edit]

* Geology of Wales

## References[edit]

1. ^ Steve Parker (2007). The World Encyclopedia of Fossils & Fossil-Collecting. Lorenz Books. ISBN 978-0-7548-1574-7.
2. ^ Available Generic Names for Trilobites P.A. Jell and J.M. Adrain.
3. ^ Lloydolithus in the Paleobiology Database
4. ^ BRONGNIART, A. 1822. Les Trilobites. pp. 1–65, pls. 1–4 in Brongniart, A. & Desmarest A. G. Histoire Naturelle des Crustacés Fossiles. 154 pp., 11 pls. Paris.
5. ^ S. M. GON III. "Order Asaphida". Archived from the original on 6 January 2011.
6. ^ JELL, P. A.; ADRAIN, J. M. (30 August 2002). "Available Generic Names for Trilobites" (PDF). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. Brisbane. 48 (2): 413, 466. ISSN 0079-8835.
7. ^ a b "Pantydraco caducus – Palaeocritti – a guide to prehistoric animals". Palaeocritti. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
8. ^ Spiekman SN, Ezcurra MD, Butler RJ, Fraser NC, Maidment SC (2021). "Pendraig milnerae, a new small-sized coelophysoid theropod from the Late Triassic of Wales". Royal Society Open Science. 8 (10): Article ID 210915. Bibcode:2021RSOS....810915S. doi:10.1098/rsos.210915. PMC 8493203. PMID 34754500.
9. ^ Ashworth, James (October 6, 2021). "New species is oldest meat-eating dinosaur found in UK". Natural History Museum. Retrieved 2021-10-06.
10. ^ Ashworth, Jonathan (October 5, 2021). "'Chief dragon' is UK's oldest meat-eating dinosaur". BBC. Retrieved 2021-10-05.
11. ^ William A. Clemens (2011). "New morganucodontans from an Early Jurassic fissure filling in Wales (United Kingdom)". Palaeontology. 54 (5): 1139–1156. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2011.01094.x.
12. ^ a b Martill, David (2016). "The Oldest Jurassic Dinosaur: A Basal Neotheropod from the Hettangian of Great Britain". PLOS ONE. 11 (1): e0145713. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1145713M. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0145713. PMC 4720452. PMID 26789843.
13. ^ Hillebrandt; A.v; Krystyn; L; Kürschner; W.M; Bonis; N.R; Ruhl; M; Richoz (2013-09-01). "The Global Stratotype Sections and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Jurassic System at Kuhjoch (Karwendel Mountains, Northern Calcareous Alps, Tyrol, Austria)". Episodes Journal of International Geoscience. 36 (3): 162–198. doi:10.18814/epiiugs/2013/v36i3/001.